Vast amounts of opinion data is now available on the Internet, through a wide range of web sites that permit users to provide input, and the amount of such opinion data continues to increase rapidly. For example, customers are using online tools to express their opinions about a wide range of products and services. Many such online tools can be described as being under the general category of “Social Media” (or SM). Online tools in this category include, but are not limited to, the following:                FACEBOOK, Inc. (Menlo Park, Calif., U.S.A.)        TWITTER, Inc. (San Francisco, Calif., U.S.A.)        all variety of “web logs” or “blogs”        all variety of “Web 2.0” sites, that facilitate feedback from a site's audience or readers        
This opinion data could be of great use, beyond the particular web site for which it was created, if it could be “harvested” (or collected) and summarized in a useful way. For example, with regard to a brand “x” of consumer products, a brand manager (a person responsible for the continued success of brand “x,” in a management or marketing role) has a great interest in knowing:                what people think about brand “x” in relation to other brands        the sentiment of consumers toward brand “x” and towards other, competitive brands        
It would therefore be highly desirable to provide a system that can process and summarize opinion data in an automated way.